Kiki Bikes Across America

Friday, June 12th: Fordsville, KY to Dixon, KY

Just a quick update I hope. I’m pretty tired and sitting outside the library in Dixon to update the site. Photos will have to be updated on a rest day and I don’t know when we’ll have another one of those, but probably not for a while, I imagine.

We woke up dry this morning as we slept under the pavilion which was nice. We were able to charge cell phones and my solar panel as well – very big plus! We had hot showers and bathrooms… couldn’t really ask for more. We headed out about 9am and were setting out for Sebree or Dixon, KY today – about 60-70 miles. We saw the first eastbound transamerican cyclists today in Utica pass by so that was kind of neat. They started in Oregon and I imagine probably sometime in late April or so. We grabed lunch at JR’s Market and we all had really good food – I had a hot ham and cheese that I ate remembering how much Jamie likes them. It was tasty! We ran into the guy who set us up at the pavilion last night and loaned us a lamp – he drove by and then turned around to stop in and say hi again and chat for a few minutes. He works in Utica apparently.

We rotated leading every 6 miles today which I think helped make our average speed a bit better overall until our hills came… but it was also nice because 6 miles is a good distance (not too short, not too long). So we rotated throughout the entire ride today switching in our rotation of who led the pack. The terrain wasn’t bad – just the morning seemed a bit more hilly than yesterday for some reason, but the afternoon was rather harmless with very few hills to speak of. After lunch, it was a bit slow though mainly due to eating and all, I think. We pulled into Sebree, KY around 3:45 and stopped at the Dollar General to restock on food/snacks (for me)… I apparently have gone through food like a mad man the past 3 days eating everything in sight! I must have been working hard on the bike, but wow… I went through all my snacks almost. Now I have TOO much and I can definitely feel the extra weight going up hills now. So I decided not to eat out tonight and instead eat some of the food I bought so I have less to carry in the morning!

Tomorrow we’ll be entering Illinois somewhere around 40-55 miles into the day. I believe we’ll be entering as we cross the ferry at Cave of Rocks or something like that. We’ll camp one night and then probably be in Carbondale, IL the following evening (Sunday) and hopefully can get our bikes tuned up Monday morning or so.

Nothing really eventful to write about today – we’re camping at Baker Park just outside of Dixon by about 1 mile – camping under pavilions again to stay dry in case of rain tonight… but I’m hoping it won’t rain! Oh, and we’re over 1,000 miles now! More than 1/4th of the way done!

That’s all for now … more updates when I have internet again in a few days.

GPS Stats:
68.7 miles
32.2 max speed
11.8 avg speed
05:48 moving time

Computer Stats:
70.13 miles
33.0 max speed
12.1 avg speed
05:47:54 moving time
1066.04 miles to date

Snake count: 1
Dog chases: 0